CameraPro for Nokia N8 – Review – Sample Videos – Comparison

As I write only about the things what I think there is need to tell people about it. And yes the CameraPro N8 is really an app that made me write about it. Would want to tell you that It’s not just a modified camera app with some more features but it actually will show you what you have got in your N8’s Camera. Simple is that it’s really one of the awesome apps available for Nokia N8. You’ll get the full 12MP camera of your N8 just in your hands.

CameraPro N8 is a paid app and is available for other Nokia Devices as well at Ovi Store but it enables some more features in Nokia N8’s camera which are not available on other devices.

Common and Extended Features for Nokia N8

  • 11x Digital Zoom (provides almost close to continuous digital zoom, you won’t feel steps)
  • Continuous Auto Focus (AF) (The best feature is that it provides Continuous Auto Focus while shooting still images or HD videos )
  • HD video (full quality with 15,25,30 fps and Video Stabilization)
  • Expert video mode (You can customize frame sizes (up to HD), video/audio bit-rates, video/audio codecs, frame rates (from 1 to 30fps).
  • Raw jpeg stream (CameraPro receives original raw image from the camera and produces more detailed picture. You will get bigger sized image e.g. 5 times bigger in size)

Videos after the break

The comparison is also provided to evaluate the facts about 11x Digital Zoom

Interface Options


Flash

All standard flash modes have been provided. You get following options to choose from. They just do same as you already know about them.

  • “No flash” – to turn of the flash.
  • “Auto” – Let it decide what’s appropriate.
  • “Forced” – Don’t observe the lighting conditions, just Flash it.
  • Red Eye reduction” – Of course the same, flashes twice to reduce the red eye.


Effects

These are one of the extra features CameraPro app is providing.

  • None – (default – no effect will be applied)
  • Negative – (CameraPro will produce and save image in Negative/Reversed colors)
  • Black & White – (Purely Black & White Picture will be stored)
  • Sepia – (Picture will be generated in brownish color as sepia-toned)
  • Vivid – (Modified picture with vivid color to look great)
  • Natural – (Natural look will be applied. It’s just modification)


Extended Exposure Modes

Exposure options in Default Camera app actually offer to select from levels (in the range of -2 to +2, default to 0) . CameraPro also does provide exposure levels in Image Controls (read below). But it also provide some user friendly exposure sets in an extended and separate menu.

  • Auto – will leave it on the CameraPro to decide what to do
  • Night – it’s configured to capture images in night or low light.
  • Back-light – Cool feature of back light exposure compensation
  • Center – Exposure level will be set according to centered position.
  • Sport – Sport exposure preset is same as found in other cameras to shoot moving objects to reduce or minimize blurry effect. The short exposure time is used.
  • Very long – Even longer exposure time is used some times when you want intentionally a blurring affect on a moving object.


Focus Range

  • AutoAuto Focus Adjustment (Separate Options)
    • Off – Auto focus will not be used at any extent.
    • Single – Camera Shutter key needs to be pressed one level down to adjust focus once.
    • Continuous – Continuous auto focus is used to adjust focus automatically while moving the camera around and trying to point closer or wider objects
  • Macro Mode – It’s to capture images very near to the camera (Close-up shots e.g. about 4 inch distance) Macro mode is in fact same as in Default Camera app.
  • Normal – Normal/Standard focal length is used
  • Hyper-focal – To choose when you want to keep all the objects (closer or distant) in focus
  • Infinite – Closer objects will depend on distance and may or may not be focused but distant objects will alway be focused. Can be used to show some kind detective view



White Balance

White balance options are pretty same as offered by the Default Camera app. And so the usage is.

  • Auto,
  • Daylight/Sunny/Outdoor,
  • Cloudy,
  • Tungsten/Incandescent,
  • Fluorescent


Image Controls

Image Color/Brightness etc. is also offered in Default Camera app

  • Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Saturation
  • Sharpness
  • Exposure


ISO Rate (Manual ISO Levels) – This feature provides you exactly as a professional camera than the one in default camera app providing in lay-man style which are Auto, Low, Medium, High.

  • Auto
  • 100
  • 200
  • 400
  • 800


Camera Mode

  • Normal (see More Options > Settings below )
  • Video (see More Options > Settings below )
  • Self Timer – a regular function to put delay in taking a shot.
  • Anti Shake – Image stabilization
  • Bracketing – Nice option to take the multiple shots in sequence with different exposure levels e.g. to not miss a temporary event
  • Burst – multiple shots are taken. Mainly in mixed-light conditions or when the subject is in successive motion
  • Time Lapse – multiple shots at a user defined interval.


More Options

  • Viewfinder Scales/Angles (I liked that option in CameraPro, usually found in professional cameras)
    • Grids (3×3 and 7×7 grid reference) – In photography world there are rules to be followed to capture a view with respect to the defined set of space on the canvas. e.g. Grid 3×3 provides the reference to use the “Rule of Thirds”
    • Compass reference – useful to locate targeted view according to compass reference.
    • Virtual Horizon reference – to help you adjust the camera angle, e.g. to level the camera on correct degree of angle. You can use it to make yourself sure that it’s straight in your hands. Mostly helpful when using a tripod stand.
  • Presets
    • Load – you can load any saved preset from a list.
    • Save – let you save the current settings in a new preset. This preset will be found later in the presets list to load from.
    • Delete – an option to delete a preset
  • Settings
    • Normal/Still Image Settings (provided if Camera Mode is not set to “Video”)
      • Storage Location – (C: E: etc.)
      • File Prefix – (A prefix to be used with file names)
      • Image Size – (Resolution) maximum is 12MP (4000×3000) (list of supported resolutions)
      • Image Quality – (in % percentage)
      • Show captured image – (on/off)
      • Geo tag (GPS) – (on/off)
      • Play sound – (on/off)
      • One tap selection – (on/off)
    • Video Settings (provided if Camera Mode is set to “Video”)
      • Video type – (a lot of types, see below)
      • Storage location – (C: E: etc.)
      • Audio recording – (On/Off)
      • Video stabilization – (On/Off)
      • Expert mode – (On/Off)

* Above features are provided from the CameraPro N8 version. They may vary in different devices depending on different hardware specifications


Evaluating and comparing the pictures taken with Default Camera app and CameraPro N8

Once at Nokia Conversions, Damian himself posted an article. He stated that  they used the zoom level which was considered usable and may be acceptable to people

In the case of stills, we capped the zoom at a point where we felt the image quality was still usable. But honestly speaking, going much beyond this only reduces image quality. Of course, though, there are on-device editing tools for cropping, etc. which you may prefer to use.

Technically it’s true that Digital Zoom is not more than cropping an image and resizing to the specified dimensions. Doing that way it will reduce the quality of the actual image. Obviously as cropping and resizing will not maintain the quality of the original image. But in CameraPro App I can show you what we got from it and how much it is different.

Review the following images

1- Default Camera Shot (Zoom Level 0)

1- Default Camera
  • Resolution: 4000×3000 (12MP)
  • Zoom Level: 0
  • Modified Later: Zoomed to 1100% or 11x (shown above)

Above image is showing a screenshot in Adobe Photoshop. The image in this screenshot is an original picture taken with the Default Camera App in Nokia N8 with standard wider zoom (no-zoom actually). but in this screenshot it is zoomed in to 11x (1100%) in Photoshop. You will notice clearly that the pixels are broken.

Click here to see the original untouched image (1.77MB)

(Note that the CameraPro app will give 100% quality without compression that will actually be a raw JPEG image. So it will result in up to 5 times larger image sizes. e.g. around 10MB instead of 2MB)

Now lets see the same picture shot by CameraPro N8 App with same specs below.

2- CameraPro N8 Shot (Zoom Level 0)

2- CameraPro N8
  • Resolution: 4000×3000 (12MP)
  • Shot on Zoom Level: 0
  • Modified Later: Zoomed to 1100% or 11x (shown above)

This image is also a screenshot in Adobe Photoshop set to zoom level 11x. The original picture was taken with CameraPro N8. Broken pixels are also very clear in this zoom level, pretty same as taken with the Default Camera App.

Click here to see the original untouched image (7.18MB)

Now take a look at the following image

3- CameraPro N8 Shot (Digital Zoom at 11x)

3- CameraPro N8 (11x Zoom)
  • Resolution: 4000×3000 (12MP)
  • Shot on Zoom Level: 11x
  • Modified Later: Scaled at 100%

You can easily compare now this image with the above two which were zoomed later with Adobe Photoshop to 11x. This image was initially taken at 11x zoom with CameraPro App and is better than the ones taken at zoom level zero but however alone this image also is not showing that much quality.

Click here to see the original untouched image (3.05MB)

So it’s true that Digital Zoom doesn’t give enough quality but I guess the CameraPro app performed a good job with 11x Digital Zoom + Auto focus. This is what actually making a difference. When the pictures were shot without zooming-in, the Auto Focus was set according to that wider distance and the objects in the frame. On the other hand when we shot the picture at 11x digital zoom, the Auto Focus was set to that zoomed in picture which will of course give some better result

You can ignore the colors as its the lighting issue in the room. Main purpose to tell if it’s any better using the 11x Digital Zoom in CameraPro.

The answer is: Yes! if you need some where you can use 11x Digital Zoom of CameraPro app confidently.

Video recording samples with CameraPro N8


Supported Video Types

  • 1280×720 (h264, 30fps / 25fps)
  • 864×480 (h264, 30fps / 25fps)
  • 640×480 (h264, 30fps / 25fps)
  • 640×480 (mp4v, 30fps / 25fps)
  • 640×352 (mp4v, 30fps / 25fps)
  • 352×288 (mp4v, 30fps / 25fps / 15fps)
  • 320×240 (mp4v, 30fps / 25fps / 15fps)
  • 176×144 (h263, 15fps)

Supported Image Resolutions

  • 4000×3000
  • 4000×2248
  • 3264×2448
  • 3264×1832
  • 2592×1944
  • 2593×1456
  • 2048×1536
  • 1600×1200
  • 1280×960
  • 1024×768
  • 640×480

Price: PKR 139.99 (for Pakistan)
Prices vary from region to region.

Final words and recommendation

Well of course the camera in Nokia N8 has already its reputation which always was possible with its default camera app. But if you want more from your Nokia N8 to give its full Camera Capability. It’s the app worth buying. Go grab it.